From the Shadows (2022)
By William Pattison
When Dr. Joseph Cawl (Davison) and members of his Hidden Wisdom cult die in a mysterious fire, survivors contact a paranormal expert (Anduze) to find the truth. What they discover makes them the next target of a deranged killer (David).
This film is a representative of the mock podcast subgenre of the found footage genre of horror. In this subgenre the “found footage” is formatted as an episode of a podcast that goes wrong and paranormal or demonic occurrences happen. These films tend to be made up of interviews and video displays like on a Zoom call or the like. Therefore it can be tricky to make these types of films very disturbing or scary.
Also, usually the reason these films are done in this format is because the filmmakers are stuck doing them on a shoestring budget. This also means in many cases these films tend to have a lot of improvisation so the performances are not usually stellar.
In the case of this film what we got is a kind of hybrid, which mixes regular scenes and the Zoom call sections. Pleasantly the filmmakers of this film actually had a full script and some production quality, much like the films Interview with the Devil and The Cleansing Hour. The FX in this film is great for what they are. This made this a far more entertaining experience, like films like The Monster Project or Paranormal Encounters. So, when it comes down to brace tacks this film is actually one of those higher standard films that even if you’ve been burned by other films of this subgenre might actually enjoy this one. I have to say it caught me by surprise and that means I can highly recommend it.
Ou can find this film on Tubi TV…
